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REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS 
To THE Boarp oF Manacers OF THE NEw York Botan- 
ICAL GARDEN. 
Gentlemen: The Scientific Directors would report some 
changes in the scientific staff of the Garden owing to the de- 
parture of Dr. D. T. MacDougal to become the Director of 
Botanical Research in the Carnegie Institution. The work 
of the assistant director has been divided, Dr. William A. 
Murrill becoming First Assistant and having charge of vari- 
ous matters of administration, while Dr. C. S. Gager has been 
chosen Director of the Laboratories. The board feels that 
this rearrangement of duties will be eminently satisfactory. 
Some progress has been made in the plans for the statues 
with which it is hoped eventually to honor the fathers of 
botanical science in New York. We feel that when these 
are erected nothing should be spared to make them in every 
sense worthy their subjects, even if it delay the time when 
they can be provided. 
We would report excellent progress in botanical explora- 
tion in Bermuda and the Bahamas by the Director, in the 
Philippines by Mr. Williams, in Haiti by Mr. Nash and in 
Utah by Dr. Rydberg. It is believed that in the case of the 
larger islands like Haiti, which are especially difficult for ex- 
ploration, expeditions on a larger scale should be planned, 
and we would urge the desirability of having means provided 
that would enable us to obtain more immediate and propor- 
tionately greater results than would be possible under a num- 
ber of smaller expeditions penetrating only a short distance 
into the margins of the island. This is especially important 
in view of the monographic work on the North American 
flora now in progress. In the matter of publication we are 
able to report the successful commencement of the North 
American Flora in the issue of two royal octavo parts. It is 
planned to continue this at the rate of four or five parts a 
year or as rapidly as material can be supplied for the work. 
